Excessive tab groups

[TheDuke203]

Hi, I'm not sure if this issue has been seen before

Issue on brave browser:
Slow startup time after using this extension for a couple of weeks

Reasoning:
As you use this extension and switch between the workspaces it creates new tab groups having multiple tab groups for each workspace
Brave happens to store this as part of sync-data, this builds up and causes the browser to slow down.

Is there a way to just re-use the old tab group already made?

[trsrm]

+1

[trsrm]

Short answer: with the APIs Chrome/Brave expose today you can’t really fix this in the extension code – at least not in the way you’d like (“re-open the existing saved group instead of creating a new one”).

What the extension does today

• Opening a workspace goes through WorkspaceOpenService.open(workspaceId)

  async function open(workspaceId) {
    const workspaceWindowId = await Workspace.getWindowId(workspaceId)
    const workspaceWindowExist = await windowExists(workspaceWindowId)
    const currentWindow = await chrome.windows.getLastFocused({ windowTypes: ["normal"] })
    const currentWorkspaceId = await WorkspaceList.findWorkspaceForWindow(currentWindow.id)
  
    try {
      await Config.set(Config.Key.OPENING_WORKSPACE, true)
  
      if (workspaceWindowExist) {
        await focusWorkspace(workspaceWindowId)
      } else {
        await openWorkspace(workspaceId, currentWindow)
      }
  
      await Workspace.activate(workspaceId)
      …
    } finally {
      await Config.set(Config.Key.OPENING_WORKSPACE, false)
    }
  }

• If there’s no existing window for that workspace, openWorkspace() creates a new window with all tabs from the saved workspace, then Workspace.activate() creates / updates the single tab group in that window

  async activate(workspaceId) {
    const windowId = await Workspace.getWindowId(workspaceId)
    const workspace = await Workspace.get(workspaceId)
  
    const groupId = await Workspace.getGroupId(workspaceId)  // first tab group in the window
    const tabs = await chrome.tabs.query({ windowId })
  
    const tabIdsToGroup = tabs
      .filter(tab => !tab.pinned && tab.groupId !== groupId)
      .map(tab => tab.id)
  
    if (tabIdsToGroup.length > 0) {
      await chrome.tabs.group({ tabIds: tabIdsToGroup, groupId })   // creates a new group if groupId is undefined
    }
  
    if (workspace && groupId) {
      await chrome.tabGroups.update(groupId, {
        title: workspace.name,
        color: workspace.color,
      })
    }
  }

So every time you open a workspace and there is no open window for it, the extension:

1. Creates a new window.
2. Opens all tabs.
3. Groups them into a new tab group (because groupId is undefined in a fresh window).

Chrome/Brave then automatically treat that group as a “normal” group. If you close the group via the browser UI (“Close group”), the browser now saves it as a Saved Tab Group.

Next time you open the workspace from the extension, the exact same flow happens again → another new tab group is created, and Chrome saves that one as well when you close it. That’s why you end up with lots of “duplicate” saved groups for the same workspace.

---

Why you can’t just “reuse the existing saved group”

The key point is: Saved Tab Groups are not exposed in the Extensions API.

Chrome’s new Saved Tab Groups feature (rolled out end of 2023 / 2024) keeps tab-group metadata around after closing, and persists it across sessions/devices.

But for extensions:

• You only see open tab groups via chrome.tabGroups.query and chrome.tabs.group/ungroup.
• Saved groups (those icons on the left of the bookmarks bar) are not visible and not controllable via the API.
• On top of that, trying to manipulate a saved group via chrome.tabGroups.update or even chrome.tabs.group now throws errors like “saved tab groups cannot be updated” and, in general, “tab and tabGroup API simply don't work for a saved group”.

There is also no flag like isSaved on tabGroups.TabGroup, and no method like chrome.savedTabGroups.open(id) that you could call.

So, from the extension’s point of view:

• When you close the group and Chrome saves it, that “saved group” disappears from the extension API world.
• When you later click “Open workspace” in the extension, it has no way to discover “oh, there’s already a saved group called ‘Green’ I should revive”; all it can do is open the tabs and create a new group.
• Closing that new group again creates yet another saved group entry.

That’s why the extension cannot “attach” to or re-open the existing saved group instead of creating a new one. The underlying primitive simply doesn’t exist.

[trsrm]

See a workaround here: #41